


our hopes and expectations

by jennagrins



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Hot Mess Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Identity Reveal, Love Confessions, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Post-New York Special, mention of adrigami
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:01:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26839378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennagrins/pseuds/jennagrins
Summary: After the events of New York, Ladybug decides that maybe their secret identities are hurting more than they’ve helped.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 29
Kudos: 439





	our hopes and expectations

**Author's Note:**

> This wouldn’t leave me alone after watching the Special so I finally gave in and wrote the darn thing! Hopefully now my brain will let me get back to my Adrienette fake dating/marriage of convenience future fic lol

It's been one week since he returned from New York when Ladybug shocks the hell out of Adrien on patrol. 

"I think we should know each other's secret identities."

He nearly drops his baton in his surprise. "What?"

"I mean...unless you don't want to?"

"I've always wanted us to share identities, my lady. But I thought you said it was too dangerous for anyone to know, even each other?"

"I know.” She bites her lip. “I still think it's dangerous but after what happened in New York I'm afraid that it's more dangerous not to know."

Anxiety twists in his gut at the reminder of his mistakes. 

"I'm so sorry, Ladybug. I know it's going to take me a long time to earn back your trust but I don't want you to feel like you have to do this because I messed up."

"That's not it. I forgive you. I already forgave you.” Ladybug paces in short circles on the rooftop as she speaks, gesturing with her hands as she speaks. “But maybe if we'd known we could have come up with a better plan for being out of the city. Maybe it would have been easier for you to tell me. I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since we got back. Chat, when you gave up the ring and left…” She stops pacing to look at him. “It was the worst moment of my life. And I can't stop thinking about what I would've done if Uncanny Valley wasn't able to see through our disguises." There are tears in her eyes. "I don't know how I would've found you again."

That had been the worst time in his life too. He's still having nightmares about it. Nightmares where it's Ladybug he cataclysms. Nightmares where Ladybug can't fix it and he’s responsible for ending Uncanny Valley. Nightmares where he never gets the ring back and has to go on without Plagg, without Ladybug's friendship, knowing that it's all his fault. 

"You're the Guardian. You would've chosen a new Chat Noir."

"I don't want another Chat Noir. I want you."

Adrien had known as much intellectually, had heard her voice saying she didn’t want to be Ladybug without him, but hearing this directly from her still soothes the part of him deep inside that still fears that she doesn't like him and secretly wishes she had another partner. 

"I..." He stops, swallows. He doesn't even know what to say. "Whatever you want, Ladybug. I trust you."

“Right,” she says. She nods, determined and confident. "I want us to know."

"Okay."

They seem to count down in unison although neither speaks until they say their detransformation words together. 

"Claws in."

"Spots off."

And then it's no longer the saviour of Paris that he's looking at, but one of his best friends. 

Adrien smiles broadly.

Marinette makes a sound like a boiling tea kettle.

He waits patiently while she rants incoherently. He knows she doesn’t do well with surprises.

And she’s very obviously shocked. It makes sense. He knows he acts differently as Chat Noir than he does in his civilian life. Why would she have ever suspected him? 

He, on the other hand, isn’t surprised at all. Of course, smart determined _amazing_ Marinette is Ladybug. Even though she’d managed to trick him that one time as Multimouse, it still makes more sense than anything else he could have imagined. Everything makes sense. Right down to how desperately he has always wanted both sides of her to like him.

Marinette has always been different from his other friends.

Now he understands why.

Marinette breaks off to glare at Tikki. “You could have warned me!”

Tikki looks distinctly unimpressed. “No, I couldn’t have,” she says. “Plagg and I are going to give you two some space to talk.” And the pair of kwamis fly off.

“So,” he says, gazing at her softly. “I guess we should talk.”

She nods wordlessly and he guides her to sit down on the edge of the rooftop with him. It almost feels like normal, sitting and gazing over Paris together. Ladybug and Chat Noir. Except they’re also Marinette and Adrien, and for the first time, they both know this.

They’re quiet for several long moments before Marinette breaks the silence.

"Oh my gosh," she gasps. "It was my fault! I was so angry that you left Paris but _I was the one who convinced your dad to let you go!_ "

“You couldn’t have known,” he says reasonably. “And it was sudden, but not so sudden that I couldn’t have reached out to you. That was my fault. I should have told you.”

“Now I understand how we were without our miraculous at the same time! And why you never showed up for the fight with Style Queen! And - and Volpina, of course you knew she’d created an illusion of you! So many things are piecing together in my head right now. I don’t even know what to do with it all.”

His chest bursts with warmth and affection, the way it always does when Marinette is being adorable, and he's shocked he hasn't put the pieces together before this.

“We’ll know each other better now. That’s a good thing, right?”

“Right,” she says, but she doesn’t sound as enthusiastic as he feels. Then again, it’s probably not as special to her. Marinette has so many friends. Everyone loves her. Not like him who has only a small handful of friends and still isn’t quite sure where he fits in with his classmates.

When she doesn’t say anything else, he can’t help but get a little nervous. He knows he’s always been more invested in Marinette’s friendship than she is in his, but they’re still good friends, right? She fought for him to go to New York and danced with him and called him her friend multiple times!

Maybe she’s still unsure about their identities being revealed?

“I’m glad that it’s you,” he tells her, in case that isn’t clear. Why isn’t she saying anything? Is she not happy that it’s him? “This will be great.” He’s not sure who he’s trying to convince now. “If there’s trouble, we can just call or text each other! And if anyone gets suspicious, we can help each other with alibis. And we don’t have to hide from each other anymore.”

She nods but doesn’t say anything right away. Then, “So you and Kagami are a thing now?”

 _Oh_.

His gut sinks as he realizes the issue. She’s worried about him pursuing her as Adrien the way Chat Noir pursued Ladybug. Guess he didn’t do as good of a job of showing her that he was happy with just her friendship as he thought. 

“Kind of? We still don’t know exactly what we are. I’ve been...hesitant. She likes me and I like her too, but she knows I’m in love with you. I mean, she doesn’t know that it’s you, obviously, but she knows there’s someone else and that I’m trying to get over it.” He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. “I won’t lie to you and pretend that it’s easy or that I’m there yet, and honestly finding out that Ladybug is _you_ is probably going to make it even harder, but you don’t have to worry that I’m going to bombard you with romantic gestures in class or anything. You’ve been clear about your feelings and you know your friendship is the most important thing to me.”

He expects her to smile at him and tell him she’s glad. If he’s lucky maybe he’ll even get some reassurance that she values his friendship too. 

Instead, to his horror, she bursts into tears.

“Marinette!”

He puts his hands on her arms gently, and when, to his relief, she doesn’t shy away, he pulls her into a hug. He holds her as she cries into his chest while he tries desperately to figure out where he went wrong.

“You’re the boy,” she blurts, and he pulls back to look at her, shocked. What? He obviously misheard her because it sounded like she said...

“You’re the boy,” she repeats.

He can only stare at her with wide eyes as he tries to fit what she’s saying together with everything else he knows, but it’s like trying to divide by zero. He just can’t make sense of it.

Because it sounded like Marinette said that _he_ is the boy, except the only boy he can think of is the one she’s in love with and he _knows_ she’s not in love with him because she’s _told him as much_. But what else could she possibly mean? It doesn’t make sense!

“You - you’re always so open and honest about your feelings,” Marinette says, teary-eyed. “I don’t know how to do that. I try and things come out wrong, if they come out at all, or I panic and take it back, or get so flustered my words don’t even make sense.”

“It’s just me.”

She shuts her eyes tight and covers her face with her hands. “I’m in love with you!”

He blinks at her stupidly.

Marinette is in love with him. 

Marinette is in _love_ with him.

 _Marinette_ is in love with _him_.

“I’m sorry. I know I waited too long to tell you and you probably didn’t want to hear this now but—”

“No!” he bursts out. “Of course I want to know. Please don’t take it back. I’m just...processing.”

He reaches out and gently peels her hands away from her face. She’s very, very pink.

It’s adorable.

All of this time, when she’d been flustered and blushing and uncomfortable around him it was because _she’s in love with him_.

Marinette is Ladybug and she’s in love with him.

“Does this mean you’ll go out with me?”

She looks surprised, like he hasn’t been confessing to her for the better part of a year now.

“You still want that?”

“More than anything,” he breathes. He half expects to wake up and find out this has all been a dream. It feels too good and perfect to be true.

“What about Kagami?”

Just like that, the bubble pops.

Although he’s been honest about his feelings, this will hurt Kagami. They were moving forward, even if at a glacial pace, and he’s pretty sure they were both anticipating that he would eventually develop feelings for her.

He’s going to hurt her, and he hates that, but he doesn’t see a way around it.

He likes Kagami, and he really hopes this won’t harm their friendship irreparably, but he and Marinette love each other. There’s really only one path forward.

“We should probably wait to start anything until after I’ve talked to her…”

“Yeah.” Marinette nods.

“Can I hug you at least?”

She responds by throwing her arms around him and sinking into his embrace in a way she’s never done before as Marinette. He breathes her in and is content.

There's still conversations to be had and things to be worked out, but they're together.

It's enough.

"I love you," he whispers into her hair.

"I love you too," she says.

Yeah, it's enough.


End file.
